Observations on economics, the academy, the wider world, and things that run on rails.

4.12.03

CONFUSION TO THE FRENCH. Yet more yacht-racing tactics, this time by Captain Hornblower, who, while pursued by a heavier French ship on his weather hip, prepares to come about, then reverses tacks, using his crew to backwind the jibs. The French captain, matching the first tack to prevent his escape, buys the fake and is unable to respond properly, winding up in stays and vulnerable to having his rigging shot away.